Through this partnership, bicycle racks with quality Coast Bikes are set up at high-activity hubs such as MTC, and dozens of additional hubs in the Downtown area, Ybor City, and Hyde Park. The
MTC location will help residents, students, businesses and visitors to
get around by combining HART and Coast Bike Share trips to explore the
Tampa Bay area.

HART
works hard to promote the growth in cycling around Tampa and seek
proactive, long-term solutions to accommodate a growing market of
transit users who travel by bike. Bicycle friendly transit provides
cyclists with increased options to travel, and it also expands transit
ridership.

"The
Coast Bike Share connection helps make HART a more convenient option
for customers needing a way to start or complete their trip," said Jeff
Seward, HART Chief Financial Officer. "With the additions
of Coast Bike Share, RedCoach, to compliment the Megabus.com
partnership, MTC has now become a busy inter-modal hub for Bus Rapid
Transit in Tampa and a catalyst for travel throughout the state of
Florida."

Coast Bikes can be reserved on Coast's mobile app, online at app.socialbicycles.com, or at the bike using its keypad. Coast to your destination and lock it to any hub or public bike rack. It's that easy!

Purchasing a monthly or annual membership
to this program would provide a convenient, healthy transit alternative
to run errands, make it to class on time, or simply sight-see. On a
larger scale, the availability of public bikes would offset the costs of
car pollution, parking lot use, add convenience to multi-modal travel,
and strengthen the local culture of health and environmental
sustainability.

This
partnership is just one more example of how HART staff is focused on
attracting new ridership, fueling revenues, and enhancing service
through strategic innovation. The HART inter-modal approach strives to
connect various modes of transportation such as walking, bicycling, and
using the TECO Line Streetcar System, Park-n-Ride facilities, and
paratransit system.

The numbers are in, and HART had a big month for ridership in April, including
another month of more than a million trips on HART bus service.
The increase continues to be evident in our daily ridership; April 14 saw the
greatest daily ridership throughout the month with 53,103 bus trips.

A total of 1,255,932 trips were taken last month, which marks the 62nd
consecutive month of serving more than 1 million bus rides; February 2010 was
the last month with under 1 million rides. This continues a strong upward
ridership trend for HART, with a fifth straight year of record ridership. We've
set annual ridership records in 10 of the past 11 years.

"We are extremely pleased that more people are taking advantage of the
affordable cost and convenience of our service," said HART Chief Executive
Officer Katharine Eagan. "We look forward to these new customers becoming
regular riders as they continue to discover all the great benefits of taking
transit."Fast facts:

Last month, April 14 saw the highest daily ridership throughout the month with
53,103 bus trips.

11 days exceeded 50,000 riders

The TECO Line Streetcar System saw an increase of two percent for April and is
up four percent for FY2015.

For the month of April, HART logged 20,752 bicycle boardings; an increase of
2.6 percent compared to last year.

HARTFlex ridership was up 3.1 percent from April 2014 and up 6.3 percent for
the year.

Year-to-date (FY2014 vs. FY2015), bus ridership is up 2.6 percent; an increase
of 230,681 trips compared to the same period last year. Recent statistics
from the American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) Transit Savings
Report indicate that the average annual savings for public transit
riders was $9,394. Individuals who ride public transportation instead of
driving can also save, on average, more than $783 a month.

These savings are based on the cost of commuting by public
transportation compared to the cost of owning and driving a vehicle,
which in this APTA Transit Saving Report includes the April 27, 2015 average
national gas price ($2.54 per gallon- reported by AAA), and the national unreserved
monthly parking rate numbers.

Monday, May 11, 2015

It's time to blast into summer with the HART Summer Blast Pass! For just $30, students 18 and under get 3 months of unlimited rides on HART services.

That's less than $1.90 a week! The
Summer Blast Pass is the perfect way for to get to summer jobs, the
movies, the mall and all of your child's favorite places. The pass is now on sale, and may be used on any HART service, excluding HARTPlus and The TECO Line Streetcar System
from May 11 - Aug. 31. Riders 12 and younger must have an adult
traveling with them. Proof of age is required at the time of purchase.

Summer Blast Passes are available for purchase at any of the following four HART locations:

Downtown Tampa: HART at City Hall, 306 E. Jackson St.

Downtown Tampa: Marion Transit Center, 1211 N. Marion St.

University Area: University Area Transit Center, 13110 N. 27th St.

Ybor City: HART Administrative Offices, 1201 E. 7th Ave.

The HART Summer Blast Pass provides kids with a way to be green, learn
independence and save money. The purpose of the program is to
familiarize youth to consider transit as alternative transportation, and
it allows them to travel safely and independently throughout
Hillsborough County.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Imagine grabbing a HART or PSTA bus and paying with the same fare
media that you just used to ride MCAT and Polk Transit. Later, you head to
Pasco County and use the same fare media to ride the bus there. Moving to such
a system is in the works in the Tampa Bay area.

HART is
leading the push to secure important federal and state funds for the completion
of a long-awaited regional fare collection system upgrade that will benefit a
regional connectivity in the Tampa Bay region.

HART has applied for two separate grants that would provide more than $20
million to fund the Regional Revenue Collection and Inter-Jurisdictional
Mobility Project.

The initiative, led by HART, represents a collaborative partnership between
Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, and Sarasota
counties. Once it is finalized, patrons will be able to travel across the
entire multi-county Tampa Bay region using one single ticket in the form of a
smart card that can also be instantly downloaded wirelessly to carry on mobile
devices.

The Regional Working Group has spent more than two years planning and
strategizing to ensure a smooth and timely transition to the high-tech system.
The upgrade will allow transit passengers, including those with disabilities
and the elderly, easy access to transportation throughout a multi-county
region.

"This is a transformational moment for regional cooperation in the Tampa
Bay area," said HART Chief Financial Officer Jeff Seward. "The
benefits of a more connected fare collection system would be evident from the
start from a regional standpoint, and would also help others upgrade their
systems so that we all can be compatible. Eventually the customer that's out
there would be able to use a smart card technology that would work seamlessly
across all systems."

Customers will be able to check their smartcard balances at any time and buy or
reload the cards at multiple, convenient card outlets or even online. Because
the cards can be scanned instantly on transit vehicles with a digital fare
reading device on board, the process of boarding will be accelerated for
increased efficiency with a more accurate system that saves HART and its
customer's time and effort.

Although $2,367,907 million of funding has been received to-date from a combination
of State and TBARTA grants, there remains a shortfall of $10,232,093 based on
full smartcard technology implementation at an estimated cost of $12,600,000
for hardware, infrastructure, and integration